Chapter 34: Don’t Pretend

The slap still rang in his ear, louder than the words I had just said.

"You... You slapped me," Edgar said, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying register that made the mahogany desk beneath his hands vibrate. The air in the room grew instantly heavy, his Alpha aura flaring like an uncontainable flame. "A helpless, wolfless Omega just walked into my office and laid a hand on me."

I didn’t flinch. I didn’t step back. I let his suffocating pressure slam against me, my cold, dead eyes locked onto his.

"And I will slap you again—"

I lifted my hand to strike him once more, but Edgar was already prepared. His bigger hand shot out, clamping around my wrist mid-air.

"I am not your plaything, Edgar," I spat, my voice cut from ice as I bared my teeth at him. "And I am certainly not a gift to be thrown into your nephew’s bed just so you can test his temper or buy his favor. If you wanted to test me, you should have used your own hands."

Edgar paused, his golden eyes flickering as the words registered. "You met Benjamin?"

"I don’t care what his name is!" I hissed, yanking my wrist back with everything I had until he let go. "Edgar, the fact is that you sent me down to your nephew. And from what he said, it’s not your first time sending a girl down to him! What did you expect me to do when you sent me down there? Read an audit? Or what—play hand games with him when he woke up? You knew exactly what kind of nephew you have and what would happen, yet you still sent me down there without so much as a warning! You deceived me, and you tried to make me sell—"

The words choked in my throat, hot and toxic, and I pursed my lips.

"Benjamin didn’t touch you because I ordered him to," Edgar said, his tone surprisingly flat as he released a breath and straightened his collar. "He stays down there precisely because he hates being disturbed, and I send people down to see if they have the spine to handle him, and its not just girls. I told you, the Betas I send down there could not handle the pressure."

"Right, but you conveniently forgot to mention the part about actually handling him when you said I was just going down to sort books!" I snapped, my tone dripping with sarcastic disgust. "And then you sent a weak Omega down there?"

"You kept saying you could handle anything!" Edgar countered, stepping around the corner of his desk. "So I thought you’d be able to knock some sense into him and drag him out of that basement!"

"You thought?" I scoffed, throwing my hands up. "Edgar, you never explained any of that to me! Your nephew harassed me, and he would have done whatever the damn hell he pleased with me if he wanted to! Right now, I am weak. I couldn’t fight back!"

I slammed both palms flat against his mahogany desk, the sharp BANG echoing through the room.

"Don’t pretend like you didn’t think that would happen just because you ’thought’!" I shouted, my eyes burning with pure rage. "You wanted me to sell my body, and that was it!"

Edgar froze. He fisted his palms by his sides, his jaw clenching so hard the muscle pulsed under his skin.

"I..." He paused, taking a rare, uncharacteristic breath as he looked at my trembling frame. "I really didn’t know."

"Well, it’s too late for white lies now," I said, my voice dropping back down into a cold, flat line. "I can’t trust you to be someone I can rely on." I turned on my heel, heading straight toward the double doors.

When the head trainer had thrown a four year old into a pack of starved wolves to fight her way out, when the head trainer had cut a child’s wrist and asked her to patch it up enough that she could survive, the child did not complain, did not feel resentment.

The child did not feel betrayed.

And the child did as they were told, all because they wanted to survive, even as a tool.

That child was me.

But right now, I am Brianna, I am not an assassin or that tortured and tormented child. I refuse to be played with. I refuse to be used, and be thrown at the wolves to struggle for survival when there are open roads and different paths for me to take.

The difference between now and my last life is that I have a choice.

"Keep your ten thousand credits, Edgar. Keep your training pass. Our deal is off."

"The deal stays," Edgar called out, his voice sharp enough to stop me right before my hand hit the handle.

I paused, glancing over my shoulder with a glare that could peel paint off the walls. "You really are shameless, aren’t you?"

"Brianna Wells, I’d like to apologize," he said quietly. He walked away from his desk, stepping into the open space between us. "This sounds like an excuse, but it’s the truth. Benjamin does not like being disturbed. He doesn’t like anyone coming close to him, and that’s why he locks himself away in the vault archive. His sensory perception is higher than any other wolf in this pack. So what I expected to happen was you stepping on his tail, using that sharp mouth of yours to put him in his place, and storming out annoyed or have him follow you out, I would take care of the rest from there. I honestly didn’t expect him to do anything else. I’m sorry."

I turned around fully, folding my arms tightly across my chest as I looked at him with sheer disdain.

It didn’t faze me that an Alpha of his caliber was apologizing to a nameless and wolfless nobody like me. No one was above wrong or right.

"Well, I did try to use my sharp mouth to get myself out of the situation. And do you know what he did?" I leaned forward, my voice tight. "He assaulted my lips swollen, stole my breath, and almost suffocated me to death."

Edgar stopped dead in his tracks just a few feet away from me.

"Brianna..." He let out a low, heavy exhale, looking directly into my eyes without a shred of his usual arrogant posture. "I know I was wrong this time."

"Heh," I scoffed softly, tilting my head. "Where is your Alpha pride now?"

"I won’t hide behind my pride when I know I indeed did something wrong to you," Edgar said, his deep voice dead serious. "I understand if you hate me and find me disgusting... but I want you to know I really did not intend for you to sell your body."

He took one slow, deliberate step forward, his golden eyes burning with absolute sincerity.

"You are far too valuable for that."

"Saying sorry doesn’t erase anything," I said, my voice cold and unyielding. "And saying I am valuable won’t make me go easy on you,"

Edgar’s gaze dropped slightly, his eyes fixing on the faint, bloody residue still clinging to the corner of my lips.

"I know," he replied softly, his jaw setting. "Which is why I won’t hold back. I will pour in all my resources to support you from now on. Just call it compensation for the damage."